There are a few things that make Pedro Grifol a difficult listen, notably the utter lack of humor despite the circumstances, and the way his answers just ... keep ... going, until they start eating their own tail.
But even if his responses to questions were shorter and funnier, he'd still have to contend with the biggest issue: There isn't a reason to believe him. His inability to hold players accountable or speak truth to (clubhouse) power last season means that you can't trust him to diagnose an issue when it could actually make a difference this time around.
For instance, when it comes to catchers, Grifol said the White Sox "were really poor" at game-planning and game-management ... in November, when the Sox added Drew Butera to Grifol's staff as a catching coach. It was a rather stark contrast to Grifol's preseason projection of "elite" preparation, and it would've been a lot more useful to hear while Yasmani Grandal was still on the payroll, even if only to show that Grifol could identify the problems in real time.
Since Grifol passed on every opportunity to be a reliable narrator, a new year and new catcher is waterlogged with the same old problem of figuring out whether to believe Grifol or your lying eyes.
Martín Maldonado ran the risk of exploding on the White Sox after joining the team on a one-year, $4 million contract because he'd been a flashpoint during the 2023 season with a far better team. His physical skills eroded in his final year with the Astros -- which is to be expected for a 36-year-old catcher -- but his reputation as a pitcher-whisperer remained impeccable, so Dusty Baker chose to hide Maldonado in the Houston lineup, even at the expense of a promising rookie catcher in Yainer Diaz.
Smash-cut to today, when Maldonado is a year older and playing for a franchise in disarray, and it's a a predictable mess. His metrics continue to trend in the wrong direction if they're not already languishing, even if he's short of events to qualify in many categories ...
... and because the White Sox lack any semblance of a supporting cast, his shortcomings are now front and center.
Consecutive half-innings late in Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader put his problems on both sides of the ball under the microscope. With Paul DeJong on second and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Grifol let Maldonado hit for himself. Maldonado worked the count to 3-2, but he extended the at-bat by fouling off ball four, then took strike three right down the middle.
It's never exactly fair to use one plate appearance to condemn a hitter, but it's easier to do so when said hitter is 2-for-33 with 12 strikeouts in 2024, and a .183 hitter over the last three seasons.
But Maldonado isn't expected to hit. Maldonado is expected to defend, which made his attempt to cut down Bobby Witt Jr. on a stolen-base attempt all the more bewildering.
Witt is fast enough that he might've outrun even an on-target throw, but Maldonado's imitation of Carlton Banks' buzzer-beater gave us no way of knowing.
At least until the eighth inning of Game 2, when Korey Lee was behind the plate for a nearly identical situation.
Lee didn't have to contend with Witt, but Dairon Blanco's sprint speed rivals Witt's, and he used those wheels to steal 24 bases in 29 attempts last year, followed by a 5-for-5 start in 2024.
Blanco is now 5-for-6, because Lee made an on-target throw.
Sure, that throw also required Nicky Lopez to make a slick pick and tag, but Lee gave him something to work with. Lopez caught the throw at second base, rather than shallow center field.
The polar opposite outcomes created a situation where Grifol had to comment on both catchers after the game. Regarding Maldonado hitting for himself, Grifol said ...
"No, we were up at the time. I'm not doing that. I'm keeping my catcher in there with the lead. He puts the right fingers down. He knows what he's doing back there. I'm not doing that at that time."
... except to eyes both trained and untrained, the present form of Maldonado does not look like he knows what he's doing back there, and praising the "right fingers" is especially poorly timed during a game where Salvador Perez hit a go-ahead homer on a first-pitch fastball in the zone. Combine his production on both sides of the ball, and he's the fifth-least valuable player in baseball, despite receiving far less playing time than the four beneath him. WAR may not capture everything, but it captures what a player is showing. Maldonado is giving us nothing to work with, and intangibles simply aren't load-bearing on a team that's 3-15.
Meanwhile, regarding Lee's successful throw, Grifol said ...
"Every time I see him throw, there’s very few people in the game that throw like that. Have that kind of arm strength and that kind of footspeed and transfer. Drew is doing a really good job of trying to get him under control and make him understand that he doesn’t have to rear back to throw. He’s got plenty of arm strength and plenty of quickness. That’s just an example, he got a good pitch to throw on, the transfer was clean and the ball just kind of stayed up. It was a really good play by Nicky, but [Lee] got rid of that ball and that ball had some velocity on it."
... which reminds everybody that the White Sox have an actual catching coach who should be able to help with things like game-planning, management and technique. Butera's presence makes it even harder to consider Maldonado a structural necessity rather than a $4 million redundancy.
For Lee's part, he'll always praise Maldonado, dating back to their overlapping in Houston, but that's partially because he does not yet have the standing to claim he could do a better job. As evidence, here's Lee praising Grandal last September, a couple months before Grifol said that Grandal didn't adequately perform the tasks Lee mentioned:
“It’s been a game changer,” said Lee, who is 1-for-19 since joining the White Sox. “I’ve learned every single day, talking with Pedro, talking with Yas about game calling and setups.
“We are feeling good about it. I give all the credit to him for helping me and doing this for me. You don’t see that a lot in older players. I’m very fortunate to have him work with me.”
Lee is obligated to say these things because he knows his role. Grifol's role as manager is to render more objective judgments in a timely fashion, whether with words or playing time. Alas, when it comes to veterans, his instinct is to object, obscure and obfuscate in the hopes the situation will resolve itself. Based on what we saw in 2023 with Grandal, Tim Anderson, Andrew Benintendi, Yoán Moncada and others, he never gets so lucky.
With eight-ninths of the season remaining, it's not quite yet the time to pull the plug on Maldonado. He should have a little bit of regression on his side, and even if he doesn't, the Sox could use a few more series to line up their best third-catcher option in Charlotte. Every week the Sox can delay thrusting Lee into an unquestioned starting role lessens the risk that Lee will be overexposed, and thus pushing the Sox into the same dead end.
In the meantime, Maldonado's struggles give Grifol an opening to practice voicing concerns about veterans who aren't meeting expectations, in something resembling a proactive fashion. There isn't reason to think he'll take advantage of that opportunity, but if he continues to be so unwilling to entertain alternatives on the field, it should embolden the White Sox front office to entertain alternatives in the dugout.
